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Web-only letters to the editor, Oct. 18, 2013

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Injuries during birth

Thousands of newborns are affected by brachial plexus injuries each year; however there is
little to no information made available to expecting parents. These are traumatic injuries that
occur during the birth process and may cause paralysis of the arm. These injuries are not
genetic and could happen to anyone. Availability of brachial plexus statistics vary widely,
but where figures are available brachial plexus injuries occur in 2-5 out of 1000 births.

The brachial plexus community is recognizing Brachial Plexus Injury Awareness Week, October
20th through October 26th 2013. A brachial plexus injury is the result of an injury to the nerves
in the neck that make the shoulder, arm and hand functional. The resulting paralysis differs
according to the severity of the injury.

Our son was born in 2011 with right arm paralysis. We received no information from the
hospital other than it would get better over time. The actual birth injury he sustained is
called shoulder dystocia, which causes the brachial plexus injury. Thankfully we discovered
www.ubpn.org and the wealth of information located there. He had surgery at approximately 4
months old to repair two avulsions (tearing of nerve from spinal cord) and one rupture (tearing of
the nerve but not at the spinal cord) as well as removal of scar tissue. He had another
surgery in October of 2012 for an additional nerve transfer in an attempt to gain more function.
Since these two surgeries he has gained hand and wrist function but minimal to no arm
function. He has been in therapy since one month of age and will need additional surgeries in
the future. This is a long term injury, and our son will never have full function of his
right arm.

We have learned through our journey that many times, families with members who have been
inflicted with this injury are unaware of the treatments currently available to them, either
through misinformation or lack of awareness, ourselves included. Time is of the essence in
treating this injury. A brachial plexus specialist must monitor the injury to optimize
recovery and minimize residual effects.

Our goal is to provide awareness that these injuries are preventable and that there is
information available to assist parents like us. We gained the knowledge of these injuries
after it occurred to our family and would like to prevent other families from having to deal with
the anger, frustration, and emotional stress of searching for answers that are not made readily
available. Ask your doctor about injuries that can happen to your baby during birth and the
routine procedures to avoid them.

Troy Starner, Pleasantville

Our government

The government shutdown is the most recent display of a continuous conflict that hinders our
government from efficiently functioning every day – the partisan gridlock. Congressional
representatives, our representatives, are supposed to advocate for us, the people. However, this
government shutdown shows the ugly reality. Members of Congress are too preoccupied with party
combat to focus on representing the people who elected them. In wake of the government shutdown, we
can clearly see that this partisan gridlock has spiraled out of control. We the people are now
economically sanctioned by our own government, essentially caught in the crossfire between party
lines.

The party antagonism spills from our nation’s capital into the homes and the minds of the
people. The majority of American voters identify as either a Republican or a Democrat. This
identification translates into a preconceived bias about candidates before an election even begins.
Party affiliation prevents us from rationally comparing our candidates. Instead of researching our
options and arriving at informed decisions, we just vote for the party label.

Of course, this makes voting a lot easier, and the public enjoys simplicity. Do not fog our
simple views with the complicated details. Do not grey our politically black and white world – or
in this case red and blue world. It is much easier existing in a delusional world of simplicity,
where one party is good and the other party is the villain. Rather than strain ourselves with
becoming informed about each candidate, we know who to vote for based on which party we belong to.
Even better, we know exactly who to blame when something goes wrong; the opposing party.

The media conveniently caters to our biased views of a simple red and blue world, and people
watch the news outlet that matches their bias. The media reports a partial truth, a simple truth, a
distorted truth. The viewer receives a simple story that paints his or her preferred party as the “
good guy”, and this false simplicity perpetuates the viewer’s belief in a red and blue world, where
the other party is the enemy.

Thus, the media plays an integral role in polarizing politics in our nation, dividing us
further apart to further extremes and further away from a common ground. The hostility between
Republicans and Democrats becomes more prevalent, and the public becomes even more polarized.

This party vs. party dispute slows and, in the case of the government shutdown, completely
ceases our ability for progress. Currently, our government continues playing the partisan blame
game, which the media propels, instead of working together toward a solution. The public, also
consumed by the blame game, gets caught up in the media frenzy of choosing sides in the Republican
vs. Democrat standoff.

We the people should instead focus on the issue that our self-interested representatives,
Republican and Democrat, no longer represent our interests. Neither party, nor their incessant
bickering amongst one another, work to bring us closer to a more perfect union. In fact, party
affiliation achieves just the opposite – a divided United States.

Abolishing party affiliation would send our simple world of red and blue crumbling to the
ground. However, what we could build from the ruins is a knowledgeable society that votes
rationally rather than through an uninformed and biased party lens.